*EPF403 09/12/2002
Transcript: UN Should Move Quickly Against Iraq, U.S. Official Says
(Backgrounder by Senior Official on the President's UN speech) (1780)

United Nations -- In his speech to the U.N. General Assembly September 12, President Bush made clear that he wants the United Nations to act to ensure that Iraq adheres to the demands of the Security Council, and the United States will be working in the days ahead to try to bring that about, a senior administration official said.

Talking with journalists after the president's speech, the senior official added that given the danger that has been gathering for more than a decade "we don't really believe that there needs to be much more time before the UN acts, the UN Security Council acts."

The official said that the United States is "open to all kinds of ideas" including setting a short timeframe for the return of weapons inspectors. But, the official said, "while the weapons of mass destruction remains perhaps the most troubling, Saddam Hussein is in violation of a number of resolutions including repressing his own people, not accounting for missing persons, and what he's doing in the oil-for-food program and so we would expect him to be held to account for those as well."

Asked for a reaction to Secretary General Kofi Annan's emphasis on multilateral action through the United Nations in his General Assembly speech, the senior official said that Bush and Annan "did the same thing today."

Bush "said the UN should act and this is a great multilateral institution," the official said, "and the secretary general, of course, said...if the Iraqi regime does not live up to its obligation, the United Nations has got to act."

The text of the secretary general's statement can be found on the U.N. Web site at:
http://www.un.org/webcast/ga/57/statements/statements.htm

Following is the White House transcript:

(begin transcript)

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(New York, New York)
September 12, 2002

BACKGROUND REMARKS TO THE POOL BY A SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL

The United States Mission

11:25 A.M. EDT

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, I think the President's spoken for himself, so I'm happy to take any questions that you might have. That might be the best use of our time.

QUESTION: When the President said the U.S. is willing to act if the U.N. doesn't, is that essentially a declaration of potential military action?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: The President has kept open his options. He's always said that military is an option.

But what he came here today to do was to challenge the United Nations to not be irrelevant, to challenge the United Nations not to become the League of Nations, to challenge the United Nations to act to deal with this threat. And we're going to be talking with friends and allies, with other members of the -- permanent members of the Security Council, as well as Security Council broadly, to determine a course of action.

Q: What was your reaction to Kofi Annan's remarks?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I thought the Secretary-General's remarks were really very good. I would just call your attention to a couple of things.

Of course, he mentioned the importance of acting multilateral. I think the President did the same thing today. He said the U.N. should act. And this is a great multilateral institution, he said. But it is Saddam Hussein who is unilaterally challenging the authority of the United Nations.

And the Secretary-General, of course, said that the U.N. must, if the Iraqi regime does not live up to its obligations, the United Nations has got to act. I found a lot of coincident themes between the comments of the Secretary-General and the President.

Q: But he also implied that no nation should act on its own, without a U.N. mandate. And President Bush seemed to be saying that the United States is ready to act on its own, without a mandate.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: What the President said is that as a member of the United Nations and a founding member of the United Nations, the United States wants the U.N. to act.

He's always said that as President of the United States, he has -- he must retain options to deal with threats to the United States. And of course, the United States reserves the right to act on its own behalf. But I think he made it very clear today that the way to do this, if the U.N. will act, is for the U.N. to act.

Q: How much time do you give the U.N. to act?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, the President has also been clear that the danger is gathering here. It's been 11 years, more than a decade, of defiance. And so we don't really believe that there needs to be much more time before the U.N. acts, the U.N. Security Council acts. That's what it was there for.

But the President also said, make no doubt about the -- have no doubt about the purposes of the United States, and the will and resolve of the United States. And I have to tell you, I think that's why we are here in the situation in which we find ourselves, with a growing chorus of people calling on Iraq to act -- with the French President talking about, perhaps, the importance of very short time frame to get inspectors back in. You're getting the world -- a kind of momentum behind the notion that this can't go on.

And the resoluteness of this President, in saying that the United States is not going to let this continue, has mobilized opinion behind that --

Q: Can I follow up --

Q: -- rules of what comes next now? I mean, you draft a resolution -- does that take days? When you talk about a very short time frame for getting inspectors in, is that weeks? What --

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: First of all, let me say I didn't say get inspectors in. I think what we have to do is see. We're open to all kinds of ideas, including the notion of inspectors.

But the -- this time, whatever the U.N. Security Council requires has got to be effective. You cannot go back to the situation that we have been in for the last 11 years. Even when there were inspectors in, he was managing to hide things, he was managing to harass them, he was managing to keep them from doing their work. And so we're going to work now towards something that's effective.

I can't really answer the question as to how long it would take. I think that Secretary Powell is going to begin, almost immediately, consultations on moving forward on resolutions. He's scheduled to meet with Perm Five members tomorrow, along with the Secretary-General. So the time frame here shouldn't be too long.

Q: And what's the time frame on Congress acting, doing a resolution? Does that work in concert with the consultations with foreign leaders?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: The President has been clear that he wants a congressional resolution before they leave town for the recess. I think that it would be a real pity if the Congress were not to speak with one voice shortly here, because the President, having led, now, the United Nations to consider this issue, believes that he will be in a stronger position if he has spoken with the united voice of the executive and legislative branch. And so Congress needs to act.

The United States needs to lead on this. It's the United States that has been most certain about the need to deal with the Iraqi situation, and the Congress needs to act. We don't want a situation in which the Congress is not acting and the U.N. is. That would make no sense whatsoever.

Q: Is it correct, then, that any U.N. resolution would go far beyond the notion of inspectors only? It would deal with a much broader list of demands or requirements?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, clearly our view is that while the weapons of mass destruction remain perhaps the most troubling, Saddam Hussein is in violation of a number of resolutions, including repressing his own people, not accounting for missing persons, what he's doing in the Oil-for-Food program. And so we would expect him to be held to account for those as well.

But we'll see what the particular mix is in the resolutions. But we don't think he ought to be let off the hook for any of the crimes that he's committing.

Q: You mentioned the world coming around, and Chirac. What's the status with Russia?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: We will talk with the Russians. I think you may have seen the comment by the Russian Defense Minister a few days ago, saying, you know, that we shouldn't negotiate with the regime.

I think you will see the Perm Five taking its responsibility seriously. The President made a really clear moral case out there today that Iraq is a threat; that he is a threat to peace and security; it's a threat that's growing. And he made a very powerful case that he's a threat to the authority of the U.N. I can't believe that any member of the Permanent Five of the Security Council wants to go down in history as being like the League of Nations.

Q: Can you --

Q: -- indemnify Russia for their losses, their commercial losses, if there were regime --

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I think it's premature to talk about that kind of thing. We understand that the Russians have some concerns about their relations with the Iraqis. But the Iraqis aren't very good at keeping their obligations to anybody.

Q: The President was still somewhat vague about the imminence of the threat, of the weapons of mass destruction threat. Can you narrow that window more, or --

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Part of the problem is, as the President said in his speech, the only time you might be absolutely certain that he has a nuclear weapon is if, God forbid, he uses it.

I can't believe that the argument here is we should wait until he is capable of delivering a nuclear weapon against the United States, or biological weapons against the United States. Are we to wait until he has perfected these technologies and perfected the means of delivery? Or are we to try and deal with this threat before that?

Our ambitions -- or his, Saddam Hussein's ambitions and U.S. interests are going to clash, as they have in the past. He's not a status quo actor. He's a very active person, very active -- it's a very active regime. And we can't be in a situation of waiting until he can blackmail us or, heaven forbid, actually use a weapon.

END 11:33 A.M. EDT

(end transcript)

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